A novel robust adaptive controller for multi-input multi-output (MIMO) feedback linearizable nonlinear systems possessing unknown nonlinearities, capable of guaranteeing a prescribed performance, is developed in this paper. By prescribed performance we mean that the tracking error should converge to an arbitrarily small residual set, with convergence rate no less than a prespecified value, exhibiting a maximum overshoot less than a sufficiently small prespecified constant. Visualizing the prescribed performance characteristics as tracking error constraints, the key idea is to transform the ldquoconstrainedrdquo system into an equivalent ldquounconstrainedrdquo one, via an appropriately defined output error transformation. It is shown that stabilization of the ldquounconstrainedrdquo system is sufficient to solve the stated problem. Besides guaranteeing a uniform ultimate boundedness property for the transformed output error and the uniform boundedness for all other signals in the closed loop, the proposed robust adaptive controller is smooth with easily selected parameter values and successfully bypasses the loss of controllability issue. Simulation results on a two-link robot, clarify and verify the approach.

We consider the tracking problem of unknown, robustly stabilizable, multi-input multi-output (MIMO), affine in the control, nonlinear systems with guaranteed prescribed performance. By prescribed performance we mean that the tracking error converges to a predefined arbitrarily small residual set, with convergence rate no less than a prespecified value, exhibiting maximum overshoot as well as undershoot less than some sufficiently small preassigned constants. Utilizing an output error transformation, we obtain a transformed system whose robust stabilization is proven necessary and sufficient to achieve prescribed performance guarantees for the output tracking error of the original system, provided that initially the transformed system is well defined. Consequently, a switching robust control Lyapunov function (RCLF)-based adaptive, state feedback controller is designed, to solve the stated problem. The proposed controller is continuous and successfully overcomes the problem of computing the control law when the approximation model becomes uncontrollable. Simulations illustrate the approach.

In this paper, we consider the synchronization control problem for uncertain high-order nonlinear multi-agent systems in a leader-follower scheme, under a directed communication protocol. A robust decentralized control law of minimal complexity is proposed that achieves prescribed, arbitrarily fast and accurate synchronization of the following agents with the leader. The control protocol is decentralized in the sense that the control signal of each agent is calculated based solely on local relative state information from its neighborhood set. Additionally, no information regarding the agents' dynamic model is employed in the design procedure. Moreover, provided that the communication graph is connected and contrary to the related works on multi-agent systems, the controller-imposed transient and steady state performance bounds are fully decoupled from: 1) the underlying graph topology, 2) the control gains selection, and 3) the agents' model uncertainties, and are solely prescribed by certain designer-specified performance functions. Extensive simulation results clarify and verify the approach.

This paper addresses the tracking control problem of 3-D trajectories for underactuated underwater robotic vehicles. Our recent theoretical results on the prescribed performance control of fully actuated nonlinear systems are innovatively extended on the control of the most common types of underactuated underwater vehicles, namely, the torpedo-like (i.e., vehicles actuated only in surge, pitch, and yaw) and the unicycle-like (i.e., vehicles actuated only in surge, heave, and yaw). The main contributions of this paper concentrate on: 1) the reduced design complexity; 2) the increased robustness against system uncertainties; 3) the prescribed transient and steady-state performance; and 4) the minimal tracking information requirements. A comparative simulation study points out the intriguing performance properties of the proposed method, while its applicability is experimentally verified using a small unicycle-like underactuated underwater vehicle in a test tank.